That's an interesting point, Delilah. I'm sure that outsourcing to India is cheaper, but is it better value?

Here's a hypothetical example. I have a job that needs doing. I can spend, say, £500 and outsource it to India or £1,000 and have the same work done by a Brit.

What influences my decision? It's not just price. The Indian is cheaper to hire, but if I'm not happy with the job, then I've wasted my money. Of course I might not be happy with the work done by the Brit either, but at least I've more chance of some legal remedy.

When I choose someone to outsource work to, I don't base the decision on price alone. I base it on the value I think I'll get.

Outsourcing is an interesting subject, though. How do other managers decide when to outsource? Having made the decision to outsource, how do do you choose who to outsource to?_________________http://britishexpat.com

Outsourcing is a big decision and as mentioned above it is not just about cost but overall value.

Ten years ago so many companies opened outsourcing centers in India due to the cheap labour costs, at the time it made business sense. The problem they had was that they had to make offers of employment to 200 people if they wanted 50 to start working as a lot of people moved from company to company very quickly making quick cash.

Since then a lot of these companies have moved their centers back out of India as the cost of employment has risen faster than western Europe. The 'new' home for many outsourcing centers is Romania. Give it another 5 years and it will be Moldova or one of the 'stan' states.

The above relates more to the larger business, for the small business outsourcing is even more risky as a lot of small companies do not have the time to keep tabs on what their outsource partner is up to. In my opinion smaller companies should keep their outsource partner close to home, even if it costs a little more to take away any possible communication issues and to ensure they are building a good partnership._________________Credit-Manager.Net
Credit Control Outsourcing and licensed Debt Collectors

Interesting. I'd not realised that wages in India were rising relatively fast. Is that across the board or more regionalised, eg in the "silicone valley" areas?

I've done a bit of outsourcing recently and both times have chosen someone I'd already made friends with on a forum. OK, so I''ve never met the people but I grew to like and trust them before I did business with them. I've been happy with this so far. I like to do business with people I "know", even if I only know them from a forum.

India had a big advantage because English is one of their (many!) official languages and is also the mother-tongue of many Indian nationals. Wouldn't it be hard to replicate that in the "stans"?_________________http://britishexpat.com

I'd not realised that wages in India were rising relatively fast. Is that across the board or more regionalised, eg in the "silicone valley" areas?

Mainly in the built up areas, but it is starting to happen elsewhere. Compared to the likes of the UK & US the % rise has been significant in the past few years. Yes, It is still cheaper, but the cost savings are reducing.

Kay wrote:

India had a big advantage because English is one of their (many!) official languages and is also the mother-tongue of many Indian nationals. Wouldn't it be hard to replicate that in the "stans"?

Some of it will come down to accent. In many of the old eastern block and CIS countries they have started putting English on the agenda as a 'must' learn for the future. They are making big efforts to neutralize their accents when they are talking English and this could make a big difference.

I've seen outsourcing work and fail in India and I've seen companies move to having shared service centers in low cost countries only to pull them back when the costs mount up and other problems they did not foresee crop up. You hit the nail on the head Kay, make sure you 'know' who you are dealing with before you outsource, trust is a must._________________Credit-Manager.Net
Credit Control Outsourcing and licensed Debt Collectors

Accent is a funny thing. I wonder how much it matters. Do you think it does?

I once shared a house with a group of Danes, who were all perfectly fluent in English. Excellent language skills! But they all spoke English with a particular accent. You'd know they were Danish just to hear them. Same with Swedes - and Germans too, I think?

Many Indians don't just have an accent, they also seem to use a kind of archaic English.

Many Malaysians are terrific at English. Actually there's quite a bit of political debate going on at the mo' with some people protesting about the fact that many of their formal exams are in English rather than Bahasa. It'll be interesting to see how that pans out. I think in a way they'd be doing themselves a dis-service not to keep promoting the use of English. But it's their country and culture, so it's their decision whatever we might think.

Trust is a must! Love it. That could be a brilliant slogan. Do business with us because trust is a must. _________________http://britishexpat.com

Accent is a funny thing. I wonder how much it matters. Do you think it does?

Personally I think it does have an influence. In my day job I run a small shared service center based in Munich covering the whole of Europe, Middle East and Africa. When you are trying to collect cash from someone, if they do not like your accent you will not get paid on time. We have to be careful who phones who. A couple of examples have been someone with a clear East German accent speaking to English customers or someone speaking Italian with a French accent - these do not get as good a response as a natural.

Kay wrote:

Trust is a must! Love it. That could be a brilliant slogan. Do business with us because trust is a must.

I'm sure you're right but this is a bit of a revelation for me. I've known for a long time that some people are very racist - mostly they don't like people who are darker-skinned than themselves. So, of course, this is going to spill over to accents as well - very relevant for call/support centres.

I'll stay hiding behind my computer. I tried to make a "how to..." video once, which we uploaded to YouTube. The only comments I got from people were about how strong my Jock accent is. (BTW, I'm a Teuchter from the sticks up north, not one of your Glasweigan types. )

Many multinational companies in USA and UK are now following the concept of outsourcing and getting services from countries like India, China and Pakistan because labour in those countries is so cheap and that's why it causes those companies cut short their expenses but the only problem is the transfer of technology to those countries._________________Data DubaiBattery4sale

Nonsense. If that were the case, then how are companies like Infosys able to operate? It's not even infrastructural - many, or even most, of these companies have their own captive power generation so they don't have to rely on the inadequate public electrical grid.

The problems are cultural, not technological. And that applies to business culture as well as things like language, accent and social memes. One of the reasons that spammy link builders have flourished in those three countries is that regulation is so bitty - and even where it exists, there's very little enforcement infrastructure in place._________________British Newspapers Online - All about the UK's national, regional and local press

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I agree, Paul. But also some native English speakers are pretty bad too. We had a guy on our forum who, among other things, offers "professional proofreading in English". He made three grammatical mistakes in his posting, which consisted of only a couple of sentences (slagging off our forum) ._________________http://britishexpat.com